Dispatch from Michael Mann's world, where fossil fuels have caused "the monumental decrease in biological diversity", hundreds of million dollars finance people "whose job it is to cast doubt on the mere existence of climate change" and where "China, India and parts of South America retool their economies to embrace an entirely new clean energy infrastructure"

Stacy Clark: The Promiscuous Politics of the Energy Industry

In talking recently with climate expert, author, and Nobel Prize recipient Dr. Michael E. Mann, I realized that our conversation was nothing short of a roundabout tour of sorts and that the route we traveled was, indeed, a perfect circle. Though not linear, I could see that circles diagram trends quite well, too. So, I invite you to join me as I recreate the path Mann and I embarked on in an effort to identify just how the well-funded climate denial machine has become a Catch-22 phenomenon and how its orbital path continues to gain momentum, despite the growing evidence that climate change is rapidly redefining and reorganizing our world.
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"As the science of climate change becomes increasingly clear and better understood, the climate science denial machine has become nastier and dirtier in its misinformation campaign," Mann explains. "It's a battle -- so they shout louder and louder -- and they will never retreat quietly. Their scorched Earth tactics insure they will fight to the end and whether science and reason wins out before the effects of climate change are fully felt is the real question."
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Have the fossil fuel tycoons become experts at "glamorizing" energy? Mann thinks that they have. "It's mind-numbing. Despite what the ads portray, fossil fuel companies are, in many cases, not your good neighbors, they haven't restored the Gulf, and there are open questions about the safety of practices such as fracking for natural gas. What they hope that you'll never see are the environmental impacts, the loss of polar ice and the monumental decrease in biological diversity." ...
As we continue, we arrive at the public's embrace of the status quo. "So, this is where they want you," Mann asserts. "Their blinding profits finance alluring ads that hold your attention." Hundreds of million dollars [?!?] more finance well-heeled pundits and political surrogates whose job it is to cast doubt on the mere existence of climate change. "Through polished and repetitive messaging, they persuade viewers that climate change science is suspect. Combined, the pundits and the ads are a powerful propaganda punch."

The oil industry is behaving badly. They dismiss the work of well-respected scientists. Like schoolyard bullies, they want to control everyone and everything. They tease the smart kids, grab their homework and amidst taunting and ridicule, they toss it back and forth between themselves before throwing it up into the air or across the fence. The smart guys have been out-maneuvered by a determined, relentless gang of intimidators.
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Million-dollar ad buys and well-rehearsed lobbyists challenge our will and our thinking. "The culture of anti-science becomes anti reality," Mann states. "We find ourselves content to debate which fossil fuel source we should move forward with, while China, India and parts of South America retool their economies to embrace an entirely new clean energy infrastructure."